The Retrofit app. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/WIREDJeff Hyman has a message for anyone trying to lose weight with mobile apps and tracking gizmos: Without a human in the loop, you’re probably going to fail.
New mobile technology that tracks your daily behavior certainly can help you lose weight and keep it off, he says, but you also need face-to-face support from real live experts who can provide tips, moral support, and accountability. Hyman calls it “hugging and kicking,” and that’s what you get from the fitness and weigh-loss service offered by his startup, Retrofit. The Chicago company gives customers an app configured to their particular situation and goals, letting them readily track their meals, exercise, and other information, but it also provides regular meetings over Skype with experts who provide additional advice and motivation.
“When you work with humans, they hold you accountable. It’s much harder to disappoint a human than an app,” Hyman says. “Sometimes, we need nurturing and encouragement and support. Humans are just amazing at that. If you leave it to an app, it’s all flat.”
This service isn’t cheap–between $150 and $300 per month for individuals–but Retrofit claims some 90 percent of customers lose weight. The average drop is 20 pounds, and the average customer sticks with the app for 12 months. In a market bursting with monitoring bands like the Fitbit Flex, Nike+ FuelBand, and Jawbone Up and fitness apps like Argus, RunKeeper, and MyFitnessPal, Retrofit has found a way to set itself apart. Its app could show a viable way forward for the broader health and fitness app market, which has struggled to find a mainstream audience.
Hyman founded Retofit about two and half years ago, and like many startups, it began with his personal struggles. After the 5-foot-9 entrepreneur gradually expanded to 190 pounds at the age of 45, he and his wife decided it was time to seriously address his weight. At the time, he worked at a Chicago private equity firm, and his wife worried that his intense work life would undermine conventional weight loss strategies. So she “dragged” him to a pricey destination health resort, Canyon Ranch, where a one-week stay can run $10,000.
It was an experience, Hyman says, that completely changed the way he thought about his weight–thanks not so much to the time he spent in the gym but to the team of fitness experts the resort assigned to him. They imparted lessons he carries to this day, including the notion that he should never skip a meal. Hyman dropped down to his college weight of 175 pounds, and he’s stayed there.
When he returned home from the resort, he resolved to turn this experience into a much cheaper and simpler service that could reach a far larger number of people. “I came back and said: ‘There has to be a way to do that in an even more broad way.’”
Image: Courtesy Retrofit
Two and half years on, retrofit has raised nearly $16 million from investors such as Draper Fisher Jurvetson and the Pritzker Group, and its app has found a solid audience. Hyman declines give specifics, but he says the company has thousands of customers willing to pay the service’s high price tag. People looking to lose weight, he explains, have “very low price sensitivity,” which means Retrofit is grossing far more per customer than any mere app maker. That means he doesn’t need nearly as many users to reach a profit.
What’s more, like many other health care startups, the company has learned that it can pull in additional profits through large corporations interested in keeping their employees fit–and their health insurance costs low. Excess weight and diabetes are huge contributors to medical costs, and organizations can drive down these costs with app like Retrofit. Hyman and company have already signed up Google, Salesforce.com, the NFL Players Association, and the American Medical Association. Using GoToMeeting video conferencing software, employees can elect to meet with their advisers as part of support groups, driving costs down to $56 per month.
In the end, Hyman says, he cares more about helping people lose weight and keep it off than about short-term profit growth. “We’re maniacal about outcomes,” he says. The use of experts is just a means to an end, albeit one other health startups would be well-advised to copy. Your health, after all, is a very personal thing. To change it, you need personal attention.
Original post found at: http://www.wired.com/2014/03/fitness-apps-now-include-human-help/P.S. One of the reasons I enjoy going to the gym it that I get to interact with like minded people – those who are serious and dedicated to a healthy lifestyle. In between sets we exchange diet ideas and discuss the latest trends in the fitness industry. A fitness App is no substitute for this.
P.P.S. Visit Exercises for Diabetics Today for easy workouts you can start now . . . and be ten pounds lighter in five weeks.
